The best nasal strips for travel: planes, hotels and altitude, plus our pick

The best nasal strips for travel are light, dry, individually wrapped and strong enough to hold all night in dry air you didn't choose. Travel tends to stack the things that make noses feel tight: cabin air, hotel heating, mountain air and broken sleep in a strange bed. A strip won't change the air, but it can make breathing through your nose feel easier while you adjust.

Why does your nose feel worse when you travel?

Your nose often feels worse on a trip because the air around you is drier than at home. Cleveland Clinic says air tends to be drier in hot, low-humidity climates, at high altitude and in heated indoor spaces, and that dry air can dry out the lining of the nose until it becomes crusty or cracked. It names dry air as the most common cause of nosebleeds.

Planes are the extreme case. A 2002 study measured a mean cabin humidity of just 6% on intercontinental flights. For comparison, the EPA advises against humidifying a home above 50%. Our guide to nasal strips for flying covers the plane itself, including security and ear pressure, so this guide focuses on the rest of the trip.

Sleep is the other problem. The NHS says jet lag disturbs your normal sleep pattern after a long flight and usually improves within a few days. A night or two of poor sleep in a new place makes every small discomfort, including a stuffy nose, harder to ignore.

Do nasal strips help when you travel?

No study has tested nasal strips during travel, so the case rests on what strips do on the ground. That part is well measured. A 1998 study in Laryngoscope found an external nasal dilator widened the narrowest part of the nose and lowered nasal resistance in three groups: people with congestion, people with a deviated septum and people with healthy noses. The congested group's noses opened on the measurements, though they didn't report feeling the change.

So a strip is a sensible thing to pack if your nose tends to tighten up away from home. It lifts the sides of the nose to open the front of the airway. It doesn't add moisture, treat a cold or help with altitude sickness, and it's best thought of as one part of a small travel routine.

What makes a nasal strip good for travel?

A travel strip needs everything a good sleep strip has, plus a few things that only matter when you're living out of a bag.

How should you use strips in a hotel room?

Hotel rooms are often warm and dry, and the bed and pillows are new to you. A strip gives your nose one less thing to fight on the first night.

• Wash and dry your nose before bed, and skip hotel moisturizer or face cream on that spot, since Titan's instructions for its own strips note that oils stop the adhesive gripping.
• Turn the heating down a little at night if you can, since heated indoor air tends to be drier.
• If the room has a humidifier, the EPA suggests using water with low mineral content, such as distilled water, and not humidifying above 50%.
• Drink water through the day. The NHS suggests drinking plenty of water on flights, and it's a good habit for the days after too.
• In the morning, loosen the strip with warm water and peel it slowly from the ends.

If your nose is very dry, a saline spray can help. Cleveland Clinic suggests a saline spray or drops two to three times a day to keep the nasal passages moist. Our guide to dry nose at night has more.

Do nasal strips help at high altitude?

A strip can make your nose feel more open in thin, dry mountain air, but it doesn't help with altitude sickness and shouldn't be treated as if it does. Cleveland Clinic says acute mountain sickness is rare below 8,000 feet, lists headache as its most common symptom, and includes trouble sleeping among the others. It also suggests avoiding alcohol for the first couple of days at altitude and drinking plenty of fluids.

Take altitude symptoms seriously. The NHS says to rest at the same altitude until you feel better, not to climb higher, and to go lower if symptoms get worse or don't improve after a day. It says to get medical help immediately if someone is confused, short of breath at rest, coughing up frothy or bloody spit, or very sleepy and hard to wake. Cleveland Clinic describes the severe forms of altitude sickness as medical emergencies. Our guide to sleeping at altitude explains why breathing changes at night up high.

How do strips fit into a new time zone?

A strip is most useful at the point you're trying to sleep, so match it to your new schedule rather than your old one. The NHS suggests changing your sleep schedule to the new time zone as quickly as possible, sleeping only at night once you arrive, and going outside during the day so natural light helps your body clock adjust. It also says to avoid too much caffeine or alcohol, which can make jet lag worse.

In practice, that means putting a strip on at local bedtime, even if you don't feel sleepy yet, so your nose is as open as it can be when sleep does come. Use a fresh strip each night of the trip rather than stretching one across a nap and a night. On a short trip of two or three days, the NHS notes you could keep to your home schedule instead, in which case just wear the strip at your usual bedtime.

What should you pack?

A small breathing kit fits in a toiletry bag and covers most trips.

• One nasal strip for every night away, plus a few spares for naps, a strip that comes loose or a delayed trip home.
• A couple of strips in your pocket or under-seat bag, so you're not digging through a checked bag.
• A saline spray, kept to 3.4 ounces (100 ml) or less if it's going in your carry-on. TSA's liquids rule limits liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes to containers that size in a quart-sized bag, and lists medications as an exemption.
• An eye mask and earplugs, which the NHS suggests for sleeping on flights if they help you.
• A refillable water bottle for after security.

Our travel sleep kit checklist has the full list, including what helps with new time zones. If you're on a CPAP, see CPAP when traveling rather than relying on strips.

Who should skip strips or see a doctor first?

A strip is a low-risk thing to pack, but it doesn't replace care when something else is going on. See a doctor before relying on a strip if:

• you snore loudly and your breathing stops and starts, you gasp or choke in your sleep, or you always feel very tired, which the NHS lists as signs of sleep apnoea
• you have a heavy cold or sinus infection before a flight; ask whether it's wise to fly, and see nasal strips for a cold for what strips can do
• you get frequent nosebleeds when traveling, especially if they're hard to stop
• you're pregnant and your breathing or sleep has changed, in which case ask your midwife or doctor first
• you have altitude symptoms that get worse or don't improve after a day

Our pick (paid partner): TitanAir Nasal Strips

Our pick for travel is TitanAir Nasal Strips from Titan Recovery. We haven't tested or ranked strips ourselves; this is our recommendation, based on how Titan describes its strips against the checklist above.

Titan says TitanAir strips are drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible spring-loaded bands that lift the nasal passages open, so there's no liquid to pack and nothing to absorb. Its routine is easy to follow in a hotel bathroom or an airplane seat: wash and dry your nose, skip moisturizer, place the strip just above the flare of your nostrils on the soft part of the nose, and in the morning loosen it with warm water and peel slowly from the ends inward.

Titan says the strips are third-party tested and certified PFAS-free. The 30-night guarantee covers a month of nights, home and away, and TitanAir comes in 30, 90, 180 or 360-night supplies with free US shipping, so you can stock up before a long trip.

Read next

• Best nasal strips for sleep
• How long can you wear a nasal strip?
• Nasal strip tips

* This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider about your health.